Pakistan-China FTA to become effective in October

[EjazR]

Pakistan-China FTA to become effective in October - International Business - Business - NEWS - The Times of India

BEIJING
The free trade agreement between China and Pakistan will come into effect on October 10, the ministry of commerce in Beijing has said.
The move is expected to give further momentum in bilateral trade between the two countries.

This is good news for China because some of its FTA partners are having second thoughts about the accord because of large-scale influx of Chinese goods in their respective markets. Indonesian industry ministry Fahmi Idris has said the FTA between China and ASEAN, which takes effect in 2010, should be delayed.

Fahmi recently said the FTA will do more harm than good to Indonesia because it will open up different market segments and result in gradual reduction of import duty tariffs giving China a much greater advantage than it has now.

Under its agreement with China, Pakistan has offered to open up 11 different service sectors for Chinese companies to freely compete. Beijing is opening up six service segments as per the agreement drafted on the lines of the World Trade Organisation’s mechanism for encouraging free trade.

The China-Pakistan trade hit $6.8 billion in 2008. Though much smaller than the $40 billion India-China trade, it is apparent Beijing will go out of its way to accommodate Islamabad in the trade area. Besides, the road link between the two countries is being broadened and ways are being explored to make greater use of the Gadwar port in Pakistan, which has been built by China.

Pakistan is trying to lure Chinese investments with buy-back agreements so that manufactured goods find easy markets in China

 

[SalmanNadeem]

FTA with China? Are you mad?

This should spell the end of industry in Paksitan.

 

[salman nedian]

FTA with China? Are you mad?

This should spell the end of industry in Paksitan.

To an extent you are right. IMO we should focus on Chinese investments in Pakistan and more TOT agreements to boost the local industry and providing trainings to our people so that they can become more competent.

 

[Hyde]

FTA with China? Are you mad?

This should spell the end of industry in Paksitan.

naaa i don't think so

i think it will increase the bilateral trade between both countries perhaps 10 times within next few years

FTA is always good for Pakistan ....... cheap products for the poor people of Pakistan

 

[salman nedian]

naaa i don't think so

i think it will increase the bilateral trade between both countries perhaps 10 times within next few years

FTA is always good for Pakistan ....... cheap products for the poor people of Pakistan

Cheap products are one aspect but on the other hand this will further damage the local industry. I think we should have FTA’s with countries like Bangladesh, Iran, Malaysia and Indonesia etc who have similar size economy as we have hence we can complement each other by maintaining the trade balance.

With bigger economies like China we should have more TOT and investment agreements.

We have basic problems with our structure. We must focus on lowering down the inflation in real manner. At the moment we use nominal methods like increasing the interest rates to lower down the inflation, rather we should go for ensuring the uninterrupted supply line of commodities to our people which surely will help to reduce inflation. Improving law and order situation will help attracting foreign investors to invest in local industry thus providing transfer of expertise, best practices and technology.

 

[Jamshed]

Cheap products are one aspect but on the other hand this will further damage the local industry. I think we should have FTA’s with countries like Bangladesh, Iran, Malaysia and Indonesia etc who have similar size economy as we have hence we can complement each other by maintaining the trade balance.

well upto some extent u r right but i wont agree with u .. we can have FTA with china because we r not competing with china in any field lol so how come it will affect our local industry we r not producing machinary we r not producing jets we r not producing auto mobiles den what we gonna lose we r only lil bit competing in garments which i dnt think will affect because pakistan is producing more cheap garments den china and china's share in garments market is so huge that it wont affect pakistan or china

 

[salman nedian]

well upto some extent u r right but i wont agree with u .. we can have FTA with china because we r not competing with china in any field lol so how come it will affect our local industry we r not producing machinary we r not producing jets we r not producing auto mobiles den what we gonna lose we r only lil bit competing in garments which i dnt think will affect because pakistan is producing more cheap garments den china and china's share in garments market is so huge that it wont affect pakistan or china

What about the remaining industry? Should we allow it to die? This will create more and more unemployment. If we make FTAs with such big economies, the trade balance will be imbalanced resulting in more unemployment. Should we become a completely importing society?

 

[SalmanNadeem]

I think Pakistan is doing way too much to please China. But hey, that's just the dumb opinion of a Hitler-Nazi. Don't bother listening.

 

[Jamshed]

what other industries are competing with china man pakistan have only exports of 20 Billion dollars and pakistan is not competing with china in those things and china cant provide cheaper product den pakistan is already giving and plus pakistan is going to have exchange in rupees and Yuan so it will save lot of foreign exchange as well i dont think it will really matter and its better to ask from economist rather den giving ur own views abt i dnt know abt ecnomony as well but i think its rite move may b i am wrong but i have seen everyone here is just not happy with any decision of govt may b its because we always doubt on our govt ... but its better to ask from someone who know abt this topic rather den criticizing it just like every one is criticizing giving barren land to foreigners

 

[Jamshed]

so as far as trade imbalance so for ur information there is already huge trade imbalance pakistan is importing goods worth 6billion dollars while exporting only 1

 

[oct605032048]

fta has always been a controversial topic especially in such a time of world financial crisis.

for some of pakistan's industry,yes, it is very hard for them to compete with their conterparts from china, japan or western countries. but history talks. and

almost every successful economy from eastern asia____japan skorea taiwan hongkong singapore and now china prooved that free trade is a better way for developing countries to catch up.

by trading and opening competence, some industries will disapear but those remained will have higher efficiency and become winners in a world scale market.

60 years ago, toyota or sony is nothing; 30 years ago, no one knows samsung or hundai; 20 years, lenovo had no more than 50 employees but now it has become world's top 5 pc producer.

same story will happen in pakistan. you may not ready to produce jets and silicon chips, but the textile industry of pakistan which is very competitive and makes great contribution to your foreign reserve is an example and other laibour intensive industries such as outsoucing and processing will survive.

and one day, the pakistani sony or samsung or LG will emerge.

 

[Zovc]

I think Pakistan is doing way too much to please China. But hey, that's just the dumb opinion of a Hitler-Nazi. Don't bother listening.

Umm, Mr. Self-proclaimed-Hitler-Nazi, FTA between Pakistan and China is something the Pakistani economic team persuaded the Chinese into signing. Not the other way around.

 

[salman nedian]

what other industries are competing with china man pakistan have only exports of 20 Billion dollars and pakistan is not competing with china in those things and china cant provide cheaper product den pakistan is already giving and plus pakistan is going to have exchange in rupees and Yuan so it will save lot of foreign exchange as well i dont think it will really matter and its better to ask from economist rather den giving ur own views abt i dnt know abt ecnomony as well but i think its rite move may b i am wrong but i have seen everyone here is just not happy with any decision of govt may b its because we always doubt on our govt ... but its better to ask from someone who know abt this topic rather den criticizing it just like every one is criticizing giving barren land to foreigners

I am not criticizing without any reason. In fact I am just sharing a thought as a Business student that we should concentrate of ‘Building’ our industry and not survival of the industry. We need transfer of technology to develop our industry, we need investor friendly policies, we need better law and order situation and we need to have a better grip on our main productions.

TOT agreements with China and allowing them to operate their industries in Pakistan in collaboration with the local industry will certainly help us all rather than becoming an importer society.